The French government has decided to terminate its contract with Ibn Rushd High School in the city of Lille in the north of the country, which was established 20 years ago, thereby stopping Paris's support for the most prominent Islamic school in the country.

 This decision comes following a recommendation from an advisory committee chaired by the governor of the northern district, which reviewed at the end of last November the funding and content of the Islamic ethics course.

The governor's administration said that the decision to withdraw the contract was made on Thursday, but without providing details about the content of the letter.

Previously, high school officials said at the end of last November that they would resort to administrative courts if the contract withdrawal was decided.

According to the newspaper "Le Parisien," which revealed this decision, the governor pointed out in his letter administrative and educational violations described as "contrary to the values of the Republic," especially during Islamic ethics lessons.

"Le Parisien" also added that inspections showed a lack of resources related to topics such as homosexuality, and an abundance of religious books related to Islam at the expense of other religions.

For his part, the governor indicated in a preliminary report that the references of the Islamic ethics course include religious texts containing comments calling for the death penalty for apostasy, or gender segregation.

The idea of establishing a Muslim high school dates back to 1994, when 19 female students were excluded from a public high school in Lille for refusing to remove their hijabs in class in application of a decision banning the wearing of "conspicuous religious symbols."